【英文原著类】The Exiles(流放记).pdf

The Exiles
The Exiles
Honore de Balzac
Translated by Clara Bell and James Waring
1
The Exiles
ALMAE SORORI
In the year 1308 few houses were yet standing on the Island formed by
the alluvium and sand deposited by the Seine above the Cite, behind the
Church of Notre-Dame. The first man who was so bold as to build on this
strand, then liable to frequent floods, was a constable of the watch of the
City of Paris, who had been able to do some service to their Reverences
the Chapter of the Cathedral; and in return the Bishop leased him twenty-
five perches of land, with exemptions from all feudal dues or taxes on the
buildings he might erect. Seven years before the beginning of this
narrative, Joseph Tirechair, one of the sternest of Paris constables, as his
name (Tear Flesh) would indicate, had, thanks to his share of the fines
collected by him for mitted within the precincts of the
Cite, had been able to build a house on the bank of the Seine just at the
end of the Rue du Port-Saint-Landry. To protect the merchandise landed
on the strand, the municipality had constructed a sort of break-water of
masonry, which may still be seen on some old plans of Paris, and which
preserved the piles of the landing-place by meeting the rush of water and
ice at the upper end of the Island. The constable had taken advantage of
this for the foundation of his house, so that there were several steps up to
his door.
Like all the houses of that date, this cottage was crowned by a peaked
roof, forming a gable-end to the front, or half a diamond. To the great
regret of historians, but two or three examples of such roofs survive in
Paris. A round opening gave light to a loft, where the constable's wife
dried the linen of the Chapter, for she had the honor of washing for the
Cathedral--which was certainly not a bad customer. On the first floor were
two rooms, let to lodgers at a rent, one year with another, of forty sous
/Parisis/ each, an exorbitant sum, tha